In his 2009 web chat with users, Google’s Matt Cutts discussed ways in which Google Analytics can be used with Web 2.0 and social media sites.
Does Google Analytics work with Web 2.0 and social media? –
In this episode, Matt explains that Google Analytics is actually an examination utility designed for individuals to use on their own websites to track visitor activities. With that in mind, he states that Google Analytics can certainly be used on Web 2.0 and social media sites, but requires a little bit of extra work.
This additional effort is built around the need to write in a series of hooks, or tracking points, which will report back to Google Analytics once the event they are attached to has been triggered. This allows the web master to see how traffic flows through the site, and which points are critical decision making events for the user. Things which might be contained in such analytical feedback include items such as the point at which users bail out of the site completely, or move over to other content streams on the same site.
The final observation he offered was that the rich content which was the goal of a Web 2.0 site already required more work than an old straight html site. The slight additional burden of setting up hook points for Google Analytics was not a major expenditure of time and would probably yield large dividends in terms of website refinement.